This is a list of lynching victims in the United States. While the definition has changed over time, lynching is often defined as the summary execution of one or more persons without due process of law by a group of people organized internally and not authorized by a legitimate government. Lynchers may claim to be issuing punishment for an alleged crime, however they are not a judicial body nor deputized by one. Lynchings in the United States rose in number after the American Civil War in the late 19th century, following the emancipation of slaves; they declined in the 1920s. Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Most lynchings were of African-American men in the Southern United States, but women were also lynched. More tha